Happy Birthday Bookstart

This week (11th-18th June 2012) is National Bookstart Week and as they are celebrating the theme is parties.

There will be a whole host of family events all over the country in libraries, children’s centres, bookshops and elsewhere sharing stories, books and rhymes.

Plus if you go along to one of the events you will be able to collect a special exclusive book Busy Bear’s Party illustrated by John Prater.

Visit the website, your local library or children’s centres to find out about your local activities and help to celebrate Bookstart’s 20th year.

Also to celebrate 20 years of Bookstart birthday they have launched the Bookstart 20 campaign. This campaign asks you to pledge to share 20 books during 2012 – you can do this by reading to a group in a school or nursery, writing a book review, taking part in book swaps, recommending books to your friends or simply sharing books with your children. I’ve signed up to the pledge and over the coming month or so I’ll share some of the favourite books from the Littlesheep household.

There are two reasons why you should pledge to share 20 books in 2012. The first is that sharing books is an fun way to bond with children, and that the routine of sharing books, stories, songs and rhymes helps to build pre-literacy skills. The second is that your pledge will show your support for Bookstart and help secure it for future generations.

If you haven’t already made the pledge, you can do so via their website and if you have – why not persuade your friends to do the same?